To whom do I owe this miracle? To Antonine Maillet who designed it? To Viola Léger, who embodied her?
Both I suppose. In any case, it is very obvious for both Antonine Maillet and Viola Léger, who in all their interviews and all their writings never stopped attributing the immense success of La Sagouine to one or the other. .
It happens that characters surpass the notoriety of their creators and even wipe them out. Don Juan made people forget Tirso de Molina long ago, Don Quixote made people forget Cervantes, and Séraphin Poudrier banished Claude Henri-Grignon to the shadows. It also happens that actors and actresses become so completely embodied in an imaginary hero or heroine that their very existence merges with theirs. This is the case of Viola Léger, inseparable from La Sagouine since 1972.
Until the Théâtre du Rideau Vert raises its curtain on La Sagouine, for me Acadie can be summed up in Longfellow’s poem. Acadia is actually a pretty bad memory. Our literature teacher had asked us to memorize the excerpt from Longfellow’s poem, which narrates the end of Gabriel’s death in the arms of Evangeline, who had become a sister-in-law. I had a terrible time because this French teacher forced us to memorize the excerpt of the poem in its original language, English!
MY FIRST SAGOUINA
I remember leaving the theater not really knowing what to make of that long monologue by La Sagouine. It was delicious, yes! But not that easy to understand. I had even lost some of the character’s reflections, which made the room collapse with laughter. I had had this reaction a few years earlier to a performance of Les Belles-sœurs by Michel Tremblay, which left me perplexed. Should this popular language be retained? I wholeheartedly agreed with Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, who had found the success of La Sagouine and his interpreter greatly exaggerated and probably ephemeral.
Far from contradicting itself, the success of Antonine Maillet’s play only swelled. Viola Léger, who embodies this sagouine, quickly became a true icon of the Acadian people.
I CHECK THE PIECE
In 1984 I saw the play a second time. It is still presented at the Rideau Vert in a production by Yvette Brind’amour. Neither La Sagouine nor Viola Léger have changed, but I’m not quite the same anymore. (In the end, Victor-Lévy will also change, letting Viola Léger do the costume of Gabrielle Lévesque in his soap opera Bouscotte.)
Quebec has also changed a lot. The Parti Québécois took power in 1976 and Quebecers are searching for their identity. Like the sagouine. The words she utters on stage have become meaningful: “It’s difficult to live your life if you don’t have your own country and you can’t get a nationality. In the end you know who you are… You feel like you’re too much! »
We’re still waiting for ours, but La Sagouine has her land. It is located on Flea Island in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. Every summer since 1992, it opens its borders to thousands of visitors who come to discover Acadian culture.
Thank you Antonine Maillet for giving us La Sagouine.
Thank you Viola Léger for immortalizing it.
May she inspire us as she inspires Acadians!
